


Tea for Two

by alessandralee



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Background Fitz/Mack, F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-12-23
Updated: 2014-12-23
Packaged: 2018-03-03 01:25:04
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2833061
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alessandralee/pseuds/alessandralee
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Just because I know it’s rude to hit on someone who’s getting paid to tolerate me, doesn’t mean I’m scared. It just means that I have manners.”</p><p>Jemma thinks the barista at her local coffeeshop is cute, but can't quite get up the nerve to have a conversation with her.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Tea for Two

**Author's Note:**

> This might be written for aosexchange. Maybe.

“You’re late,” Jemma remarks as Fitz drops his stuff into the seat across from her.

“I thought I’d give you some time to check out your favorite barista,” he replies, digging through his bag for his wallet.

Jemma looks up from the journal in front of her to roll her eyes.

“Clearly I’ve been too busy catching up on Dr. Banner’s latest research to do that,” she tells him.

“Too busy or too scared?” Fitz counters.

Jemma snorts, “Just because I know it’s rude to hit on someone who’s getting paid to tolerate me, doesn’t mean I’m scared. It just means that I have manners.”

“Yes, well if I had manners like yours, I wouldn’t have had a successful fourth date last night,” Fitz heads off to order his coffee before Jemma can respond.

There are only two people ahead of him in line, so it only takes a few minutes for Fitz to return, but Jemma uses the time to come up with a number of responses to his last statement.

“First of all,” she says as Fiz sets him coffee down on the table, “we don’t all get romantic comedy meet-cutes with the local barista or mechanic. Life is not a movie. Second of all,” Fitz pushes his bag to the side and slides into his side of the booth, “you absolutely none of the work with Mack.”

“That’s not true,” Fitz protests.

“You blushed a lot and stuttered like you’d suddenly lost your familiarity with the English language.”

“Which is how he knew I was interested. You should try it with barista girl,” Fitz suggests.

“Her name is Skye,” Jemma tells him, and Fitz opens his mouth, intending to ask her how she knows this. “It’s on her name tag,” she anticipates his question.

Fitz takes a long sip from his coffee, “And here I thought you’d actually gotten up the nerve to talk to her.”

“I have talked to her.”

“Beyond telling her which tea you’d like.”

Jemma ignores his comment in favor of drinking some of that aforementioned tea. She’s in the process of working her way through all of the different flavors The Coffee Hub has to offer. Today’s is Winter Mint. It’s not bad, and it’s certainly helping her to wake up, but her favorite flavor is still the Cinnamon Apple she tried last week.

“Just so we’re clear,” she says after a while, “using my love life to distract from your own isn’t going to work. It hasn’t escaped my notice that those are the same clothes you wore yesterday.”

It would be understandable if she hadn’t noticed. Most of Fitz’s wardrobe conforms to one of four things: short sleeved plaid button-downs, ties, olive toned trousers, and heavy sweaters. He rarely deviates. But today they’re even more rumpled than usual, like they spent most of the night lying on the floor.

Which means they probably did.

Fitz grins broadly, in that pleased way he usually reserves for experiments that work out successfully more quickly than he’d expected.

“Like I said,” he tells her, “it was a successful fourth date.”

Their conversation then turns to Fitz’s eventful night as they finish their drinks and head down the street to the lab where they work.

\----

Jemma beats Fitz to The Coffee Hub again the next morning. She didn’t sleep well the night before, thanks to her noisy upstairs neighbors (she swears they take tap dancing lessons at three in the morning), so she’s looking forward to a nice cup of Earl Grey.

“Can I recommend something?” Skye asks when it’s Jemma’s turn to order.

“Pardon,” this is the first time Skye’s said anything to her beyond “good morning” and “have a nice day,” and she definitely wasn’t expecting it.

“You’ve been trying a different tea every day for the last three weeks,” Skye observes, “and you still haven’t gotten to my favorite.”

“And what is your favorite?” Jemma asks. Personally, she has Skye pegged as the green tea type, and she’s really not in the mood for that this morning.

“Ginger peach,” the barista replies, holding up a packet she had waiting on the counter.

Jemma tries not to read too much into it, but the tea is stored on the other end of the counter. For Skye to have the ginger peach out, she’d have had to anticipate Jemma’s arrival.

It’s a very small thrill, the possibility of Skye thinking about her, but it’s enough to wake Jemma up a bit. On second thought, maybe she doesn’t need the Earl Grey. 

“Ginger peach sounds lovely,” Jemma smiles.

“It’s also really great cold,” Skye comments as she pours hot water into a cup, unwraps the tea bag, and drops it in. “I always have a pitcher of it in my fridge. I go through it like water during the summer.”

Jemma waits at the counter while her tea steeps, and Skye pours a splash of milk in before handing it to Jemma.

How she knows the way Jemma takes her tea is a mystery, there’s at the other end of the counter where Jemma usually does that herself after she’s been given her tea. 

“Thank you, Skye” Jemma says.

“You’re welcome, Jemma. Have a nice day,” Skye responds.

Jemma’s brows knit in confusion; she’s definitely never told Skye her name and she doesn’t wear a nametag like the barista does.

“It’s on your credit card,” Skye clarifies.

Jemma smiles again and walks to her usual booth to wait for Fitz. He’s running even later than yesterday (and that was unusual) and Jemma briefly wonders if he spent the night at Mack’s again.

She’s almost done with her tea when Fitz arrives. He’s a little out of breath, but at least he’s wearing something clean today. He’d better be okay with getting his coffee to go, because they need to be in the lab soon.

It takes a strangely large amount of time for him to order, and Jemma’s pretty sure it’s because he’s talking to Skye. She just hopes it’s not about her. Being happily coupled up with Mack (as new as that is) has made him awfully interested in Jemma’s love life.

“Ready to go?” Jemma approaches Fitz after finishing the last of her tea.

“One second,” he excuses himself to add some soymilk to his coffee.

Jemma and Skye smile awkwardly at each other as they wait for him to return.

“See you tomorrow,” Skye calls after them as Fitz and Jemma head out the door.

Jemma waves over the shoulder.

\----

Fitz is late again the next day. He can be absent-minded at times, but this is a bit much. It’s starting to grate on Jemma’s nerves.

She sends off a text berating him for making her sit by herself again, then gets in line for her tea.

“So what’ll it be today?” Skye asks when Jemma reaches the register.

“I think I’ll have the ginger peach today,” it’s the closest Jemma can comfortably get to flirting without feeling like she’s making a complete fool of herself.

“I told you,” Skye’s face lights up, “it’s delicious.”

Jemma nods, trying to think of something more to say. She can’t, but she’s going to blame that on the early hour and lack of tea, not because she’s tongue tied around Skye. Fitz would never let her live that down.

Unfortunately, there’s a short line of people waiting behind Jemma, so even if she could think of something to say besides the utterly lame “What’s it like to work at a coffeeshop?”, Skye’s too busy to talk. She pushes Jemma’s tea towards her (disappointingly, Jemma will be pouring her own milk today), and moves on to the next customer.

Jemma takes a seat at her usual booth and checks her phone. There’s a text from Fitz telling her not to wait for him and that he’ll meet her at the lab. It’s accompanied by an uncharacteristic winky face at the end (Fitz texts in a shorthand barely anyone other than Jemma can comprehend, but that generally doesn’t include the use of smiley faces). Jemma dismisses this as another symptom of his besotted state.

She’s made a significant dent in both her tea and the journal she had in her bag by the time Skye gets through her line of customers. The barista slides into the booth across from Jemma and Jemma startles.

“Sorry,” Skye apologizes when Jemma jumps.

“Don’t be,” Jemma tells her. “I tend to get completely absorbed in my reading, I’m used to it.”

“I’ve noticed,” Skye replies.

Jemma’s not sure what that means.

“Oh.”

“Listen, I hope I’m note being too forward, but are you doing anything this weekend?” Skye asks.

“What?” Jemma replies, surprised again. She immediately wishes she could take it back and give a more encouraging response.

Skye looks pointedly away from Jemma as she continues speaking, “Fitz said you think I’m cute,”’ Jemma sighs loudly in response to this. She should have known he’d pull a stunt like this, “and I think you’re super cute.”

“Oh?” Maybe Fitz’s intervention isn’t the worst thing ever.

Still, Jemma really needs to work on responses that are more than one vague word.

“Yeah,” Skye sighs. “Anyway, Fitz said you’re basically a sandwich connoisseur, so I was hoping that, if you’re not busy, maybe we could go on a picnic. The weather’s supposed to be nice and if you make the sandwiches then I can bring the ginger peach iced tea and I’m pretty sure my roommate has a picnic blanket I could—“

I’d love to,” Jemma responds enthusiastically. Skye’s even cuter when she rambles.

“Great,” Skye hands Jemma a napkin with her phone number already written on it.

Jemma quickly copies it into her phone and grabs a pen from her bag to give Skye her number.

“Just so you know,” Skye gets up to head back behind the counter, “I’m pretty sure Fitz intentionally didn’t show up today.”

She points over Jemma’s shoulder, to where Fitz is standing outside, peering through the large windows at the front of the store. When Jemma glares at him, he waves at them both before giving Jemma a big thumbs up.


End file.
